Religious Practices
Theater
Science/Philosophy
Discoveries/Inventions

• Go to this website to learn more about
Greek gods and heroes.

• Boxing - fought until one was knocked out or gave up
• Equestrian Events - chariot racing and riding jockeys rode without stirrups
• Pankration - boxing and wrestling
• Pentathlon - combination of 5 events: discus, javelin, jumping, running, wrestling
• Running - 4 types of races
• **Jumping - they carried stone or lead weights

• At Olympia

•
Ancient Greek theater has been fascinating. Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides, Aristophanes and others, have been the teachers of morality, nobleness, courage and patriotism across the centuries.
•
Theater originated as a festival to the god Dionysus, the god of joyous life and hospitality.

• set in the past
• relationships between people and gods
• not all had unhappy endings
• though people suffered, most still carried on despite their suffering

• Aeschylus - wrote about power and its effect on people
• Sophocles - suffering was due to sins and mistakes and suffering could make someone a better person
• Euripides - people suffered because they did bad things

• set in the present
• had a happy ending
• poked fun at certain politicians in the audience (not the brightest idea!)
• later poked fun at a certain kind of person

• Aristophanes - found something funny about every one
• Did you know that the first Shrek movie followed the rules for Shakespearean and ancient Greek comedy? Check it out.

•
• A typical comedy:
• contains comic devices such as puns (Donkey calls Shrek “really tall” instead of “ogre”), slapstick antics (Shrek’s wax, mud shower, barrel, Donkey can fly), misunderstandings (Shrek thinks Fiona can’t stand him, Fiona thinks a handsome prince rescued her), mistaken or hidden identities (Shrek is not a handsome prince, the dragon is nice,
Fiona is an ogre) and eavesdropping (Shrek overhears Fiona and Donkey talking).
• • is set (at least in part) in the country, which is often depicted as a magic, idealized place (coming back from rescuing Fiona, Shrek’s swamp).

• • has shepherds, farmers and other middle-class people as characters (though it may have royal and upper-class characters, as well) - (townsfolk, soldiers, Monsieur Hood, fairy tale characters, ogre/hero, prince/villain).
• • opens by showing the hero in some kind of distress, troubled by a problem and trying to figure out a way to solve it (fairy tale characters move to Shrek’s swamp after being evicted, he wants them to leave).

• • criticizes society or specific people in society in a funny way (prince is small and compensates for his size with gigantic surroundings).
• • ends with the hero’s triumph (Shrek gets Fiona and his swamp back).
• • frequently closes with a scene in which a wedding or another type of celebration takes place
(Shrek marries Fiona).
• • ends with the reestablishment of order and a sense that a new “golden age” is beginning (song
“I’m A Believer,” prince is killed, soldiers become nice, Shrek and Fiona ride off in a carriage, - they all lived happily ever after).

• Science - studying the laws of nature; scientists
• Philosophy - loving wisdom; philosophers
• Together they were called philosophia
• Socrates (below)

• History for kids
• Go to this website:
• www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/philos ophy/socrates.htm

• This is supposed to be of Socrates,
• but it was made after he had already been dead for some time,
• by someone who did not know what Socrates looked like.
• He believed people could discover truth if they knew how to think.
• Plato was his pupil.

• A student of Socrates
• His school was called the Academy
• He wrote The Republic about an ideal state
• Truth could be found after a long, hard search
• One of his brightest pupils was Aristotle

• Pupil of Plato
• “the master of them that know”
• Provided the third step to the scientific method testing the hypothesis
• Developed the syllogism
• Taught Alexander the
Great
• First to classify plants and animals

• Natural events are not caused by the way the gods behave
• The world is governed by natural laws
• They predicted the eclipse of the sun
• They believed diseases came from natural sources
• Hippocratic Oath: doctors should honor their teachers, do their best for the sick, never give poisons and keep the secrets of their patients